The case of the soapy ceiling

What on earth is on the ceiling?

That was the first thought that popped into my head as I looked at the ceiling in my son Matthew’s bedroom.

I knew something was amiss because I heard a whole bunch of “thud, thud, thudding” sounds coming from his room.

These thudding sounds were followed by loud laughter from both of my sons Matthew, 8, and John, 5. I was in my bathroom at the time getting ready for work when I heard the suspicious sounds.

I knew they were up to something and so I walked as quietly as I could down the hallway. This way I could sneak up on them and catch them in the act of making the thudding noise.

My plan didn’t work, I forgot I had already put my boots on and apparently was making some thudding noises of my own.

Matthew came running out of his room yelling “John’s throwing soap on the ceiling.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about because I thought the only soap we had in the house that the boys used was in liquid form.

I looked into the bedroom and sure enough there were balls of a yellowish looking substance on the ceiling. There must have been at least 20, ranging in various sizes.

“What is that on the ceiling,” I asked.

“Matthew told you already, Mom. It’s soap,” John said loudly.

“Where did you get the soap from,” I asked.

“Grandma and Grandpa gave it to us.”

Then, I remembered what they were talking about. Their grandparents had given them soap with Bugs Bunny in it. As they used the bar of soap, more of Bugs Bunny appeared.

I guess they couldn’t wait for the soap to be used up. So they took a butter knife, cut the soap off of the bar until they got to Bugs Bunny. Then they put Bugs Bunny in the sink to wash the rest of the soap off.

I didn’t have a problem with this. What I did have a problem with is the fact the left over soap was now of the ceiling.

Luckily, we were running ahead of schedule and so I had the boys go get the broom and dustpan. I was hoping my first idea worked because the second idea involved me getting the ladder from the garage.

With broom in hand, I went for the largest piece first. It just stuck to the broom. I had John and Matthew take turns removing the soap from the broom all the while telling them how we never throw things onto the ceiling and they are lucky it didn’t stain the paint. I also reminded them that lying and blaming each other isn’t something I am going to tolerate in the house. I must have given them the mom look because they both immediately came clean and told me they were both throwing the soap onto the ceiling.

They apologized while they helped me clean everything up, but that didn’t save them from a timeout. It wasn’t that big of a job; and hopefully they learned their lesson not only about throwing things onto the ceiling, but lying about it.